The holidays, of course, are upon us, and with these holidays comes the need for beautiful dresses and shoes. Ok. ANY time of year comes with a need for beautiful dresses and shoes as far as I’m concerned, but y’know, the holidays give you an excuse to go buy them. Anyway, I flipped to the holiday section of the Essence to look at the party dresses, and I thought…wow. That’s a gorgeous model. And man! What a gorgeous dress! And then it hit me why I was so enthralled with both dress AND model for a change: she looked NORMAL.

Wait! Don’t get the torches and pitchforks yet, because I have to explain what normal means for me. And it’s got a bit of a cultural thing attached, so bear with me, folks. In my family, you’re gonna get picked at for being “too skinny” (like my stepsister, who wears a size 0) as you are for being what’s considered too big (that’d be me, at a size 20-24 depending on the store). So, as a Black woman, “normal” isn’t very thin (ok, is anybody’s normal extremely thin? Most likely not) so to see a fashion editorial that begins at a size 8 (YES! A size 8! not a 0-4 like one is typically used to seeing in a magazine) is akin to finding an elusive pair of shoes in my size (I wear a size 10. Apparently, so does everyone else within 30 miles of here.)

I mean, these models had hips and bums and..wait. Is that a bit of a belly? OMG! So they do make models that look like…well, actual women! And I swear that the last young lady (the one in the fabulous Ashley Stewart dress I lust for) could be my body double…if I were a bit taller, that is. 😆

Like…I felt good, like I did when I first discovered b & lu and got happy when I saw some women that looked like me modeling the dresses. Like hey, dammit, now I have proof of what I’ve been telling folks all these years. Just because I’m fat does not mean I can’t look fabulous! I can be just as fashion forward as anybody else!